See Concept Art from the FORBIDDEN PLANET Remake That Never Was by Ralph McQuarrie, Syd Mead and Fund Kickstarter!

Years ago director Irvin Kershner, who directed Star Wars:Return of the Jedi Empire Strikes Back, tried to remake the 1950s science fiction classic Forbidden Planet. In 1995 he assembled a dream team of artists including Ralph
McQuarrie, John Eaves, Mark "Crash" McCreery, Syd Mead and special effects master Stan Winson. They started work on the production but never completed it. John Eaves said on his blog,
"The film went no where as time went on and thank goodness because the
script was awful and would have been a travesty no matter who was
working on it!!"

We'll never know how it would have turned out, but
McQuarrie and Syd Mead's designs are gorgeous as usual. Ain't It Cool News got exclusive concept art from the film and I tracked down some artwork by Syd Mead.

Ironically enough, Forbidden Planet star Leslie Nielsen, who died on November 27, 2010, and Kershner died within a day of each other.

John Scoleri of Dreams and Visions Press sent me an email letting me
know about an amazing project being crowdfunded on Kickstarter! It's a
"400+ page coffee table book featuring the largest collection of Ralph
McQuarrie's non-Star Wars art ever published." The book will include
almost all of the non-Star Wars material from they're 2007 collection The Art of Ralph McQuarrie,
along with more than 150 pages of previously unpublished material;
including a huge selection of Ralph’s unseen work for Irvin Kershner’s
proposed remake of Forbidden Planet. This post just has a sample!

Here's the description of the upcoming book The Art of Ralph McQuarrie: ARCHIVES:

Best known for his instrumental
contributions to the making of the original Star Wars trilogy, Ralph
McQuarrie has inspired several generations of film fans and artists.
While much of his Star Wars artwork has been reproduced in numerous
volumes over the years, his non-Star Wars work has previously only been
available in The Art of Ralph McQuarrie, a limited edition that we
(Dreams and Visions Press) published in 2007. That book is long out of
print and now commands high prices on the secondary market.

With The Art of Ralph McQuarrie: ARCHIVES, we will bring back into
print a career-spanning retrospective of Ralph McQuarrie’s non-Star
Wars artwork. At 13” x 9.5”, this 432-page volume is not only offered
at a more affordable price point than our original 2007 release, one
third of the content is original to this edition. That's hundreds of
Ralph McQuarrie illustrations spanning all aspects of his body of work.
TRADE EDITION COVER DESIGN - NOT FINAL TRADE EDITION COVER DESIGN - NOT FINAL

We've been hard at work on the book for the past several months. Our
efforts have not just been focused on assembling new art, but upgrading
source materials where possible, and doing additional research to
provide more details on many of the pieces within, both new and old. We
are on track to finalize the book this summer, after which we will hand
it off to the printer to meet our target release date.

The book will be available in two states: 1) a hardcover version with
printed covers and 2) a deluxe clothbound individually numbered limited
edition housed in a clothbound presentation traycase. Each copy will be
smyth-sewn with head and tail bands to provide a sturdy binding that
will last for years to come.
DELUXE EDITION CONCEPT (BOOK WILL BE BOUND ON THE LEFT) DELUXE EDITION CONCEPT (BOOK WILL BE BOUND ON THE LEFT)

The Art of Ralph McQuarrie: ARCHIVES contains examples of Ralph's work
in each of the following areas: Early technical illustration, movie
posters, book covers, film and television production, other commercial
illustration and a selection of personal pieces. In many cases we have
examples of work that demonstrate Ralph's process, from his tiniest
thumbnails to larger sketches, color comps and ultimately his finished
paintings.

It's an amazing book and they've already made 90% 100% of their goal. It's a
mere 10 days away from being completely funded! Learn more about this
project and see the incredible rewards being offered on Kickstarter.

The McQuarrie book will be amazing - but ANY remake of Forbidden Planet will be horrible, because they will change - and therefore ruin - Robby the Robot. He is an icon. Would you change R2-D2 if you made another Star Wars film?

Just imagining the visions Ralph McQuarrie and Syd Mead would've cooked up together makes my head spin. I tend to agree a remake would be blasphemy, although that's my knee jerk reaction to remakes in general. J Michael Straczynski was developing a trilogy about 4-5 years ago. That sure spiked my interest, and at least with him it would have been a very respectful treatment.

Looks like the remake was on its way to being yet another off-road-vehicles-in-space action flic. What's good about Forbidden Planet is that it's a fabulous period piece from a time when a coherent story mattered. And Anne Francis's bare legs can never be equaled.

What is Film Sketchr?

This blog is about the often unseen world of concept design and storyboarding in science-fiction films and television. These artists work to bring the vision of the writer and director to life. My hope is you'll learn a little bit more about them. If you're an artist I hope you find inspiration from the talented artists featured.

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The images featured are the property of the respective artists and companies. They are shown to feature and demonstrate the artistic talents of the artists. I'm not affiliated in any way. No implication of copyright is implied in their use.